Two Cents on Today's Issues

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Remembering Mom

My mother is in her mid 70s and losing her memory. We don’t have a diagnosis yet, but it most likely is Alzheimers, the same disease that took her mom, my gramma.

It’s heartbreaking for me to see her this way. Forgetting where things are, forgetting things she’s been told just moments before, forgetting how old she is and when her birthday is.

I remember a mom who was a dynamo. She could get us up for school, make sure we had breakfast (albeit just sugary cereal and juice with a Flintstones vitamin) and take care of the house and make dinner, then clean up from dinner, read us stories and get us to bed (and make sure we brushed our teeth!)

She could go to work and still do all that. She could finish and still go play mah-johnng with friends on Monday nights – and win $5-$25 dollars that would help her buy special things for us or her. She was gregarious, funny, happy.

Yesterday I had to take my mom to a doctor’s appointment from the assisted living facility she’s currently living in. She didn’t remember the way to the doctor’s offices, didn’t remember the building he’s in – and he’s been at that location for years. She got mad when I insisted on her going to see a referred neurologist and get an MRI for the memory issues. And yet, when I talked about gramma and her issues, she softened, remembering her own mom.

She still has some semblance of the mom I knew inside. I hope to see that for awhile yet.